Politics as Tragedy in Several Acts

James Buchanan

Economics and Politics, 2003, vol. 15, issue 2, 181-191

Abstract: James Madison noted that government would be unnecessary if men were angels. The shortfall of value between the idealized anarchy of a society of angels and the society of men as they are measures the tragedy of politics, which emerges at several levels. Resources are required for the maintenance of order, and those agents who are guardians of order will not, themselves, be angels. Further, rents promised to such agents will attract efforts at capture. Reductions in the measure of the tragedy remain possible through both shifts in ethical standards, at all levels, and shifts in institutional‐constitutional structures.

Date: 2003
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